Window-shade adjuster.



B. LAY. I WINDOW SHADE ADJU$TBR. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 2 BHBETSSHEET 1.

. v Patented Apr. 20, 1909.

is I

I V TO ATTORNEY.

BL LAY.

WINDOW SHADE ADJUSTER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE a, 1908.

Patented Apr. 20, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WITNESSES rm: mums msrstis coi, WASHINGTON, i c.

entrain earns rarrnrvr anion.

EDWARD LAY, OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.

WIND OW-SHADE Al; JUSTER.

Application filed June 6, 1908. Seria1 No.437,056.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, EDWARD LAY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Elizabeth, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey, have invented certain Improvements in Window-Shade Adjusters, of which the following is aspecification.

The objects of this invention are to provide improved mechanism whereby the supporting roller of a window shade may be raised or lowered to any desired point on the window; to thus enable light or ventilation to be shut off, or admitted, from the top, bottom or any part of the window, as desired to secure means for simultaneously raising the ends of the shade roller in exact horizontal alinement; and. obviating twisting of the shade; to secure improved supporting and operating means of a simpleconstruction, and to obtain other advantages and results as may be brought out in the following description. I 1

Referring to the'accompanying drawings, in which like numerals of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures, Figure 1 is an interior elevation of a Window, illustrating a shade supported by my improved adjusting device in position u on sa1d window; Fig. 2 is a front view on arger scale of the left hand end portion of the shade roller and the adjacent supporting parts; Fig. 3 is a plan view of the vertically movable carrier in which the left hand end of the shade roller finds a bearing, and Fig. 4 is a central vertical section of the same, taken on line 44, Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a certain adjustable socket for the shade roller end; Figs. 6 and 7 are side views in the plane of the window of the right and left hand supporting carriers, respectively; Fig. 8 is a front elevation of the right hand lowerpart of my improved device, illustrating the driving mechanism, gears for transmitting power and a lock on the bracket to hold the device stationary; Fig. 9 is a face view of the said lock, and Fig. 10 illustrates a slight modification in construction of the 11 right conveyers upon which the carriers 0' my invention travel.

In said drawings, 10 indicates a window framehaving the usual upper and lower sashes 11 and 12 mounted therein. At or near the bottom of the window, brackets 13, 14 are mounted on the inner sash stops 15, 16 and other brackets 17 17, are similarly attached Specification oi Letters Patent.

Patented April 20, 1909.

on the sash stops 15, 1.6, in alinement with the said brackets 13 and 14 at the bottom. Between each upper and lower bracket extends a conveyer 18 having its ends reduced arbors entering bearings 170 and 130 (or 1410) in the horizontal portions 171 and 131 (or 1 11) of said brackets. Said conveyers are preferably made by twisting a flat strip of metal to form a spiral screw of high pitch, but they may be constructed in any other suitable manner, as by forming a thread 19 on a rod 20 by fastening a wire spirally thereon, as illustrated in Fig. 10. In this latter construction, as shown in Fig. 10, a tubular guard or sleeve 21 may inclose the conveyer and carrier 340, being longitueinally slotted as at 22 to receive the wing 400 of the carrier. This sleeve covers and protects the conveyer, as well as improving the appearance of the device. In any event, a bevel gear 23 is fixed at or near the upper end of each of the vertical conveyers, for rotating the same as hereinafter described.

A horizontal shaft 24 has its ends 25 rotatably mounted endwise in the projections 171 of the brackets 17 at the top of the window, said shaft comprising two sections connected by a sleeve 26and set screws 27, whereby the length of said shaft 24 can be adjusted to different widths of windows. At each end of this shaft is fixed a bevel gear 28, and these gears 28 mesh into the said gears 23 on the vertical conveyers 18, so that said oonveyers must rotate in unison. For rotating said conveyers 18, one of them, as the right hand one in the present drawings, carries near its bottom a bevel gear 29 which meshes into a large gear 30 mounted on a horizontal stud 31 projecting from the bracket 14, said large gear having a handle 32 for turning. By this means, the two vertical conveyers 18 may be rotated in unison in either direction, as will be understood. On each of said conveyers 18 is a movable carrier 33, or 34, each of which carriers has a cylindrical hollowbodyportion 35, or 36, slightly larger in diameter than its conveyer, so as to allow a free relative movement. The opposite ends of each carrier are, for the preferred construction of twisted flat rods shown, provided withslots 37 (or 38), through which the twisted rods pass, so that said carriers are mounted on said rods 18, though the rods can be turned with respect to the carriers and thus move said carriers up and down.

to the window frame near its top and also 1' On the side of each carrier, and preferably that side away from the window, or toward the room, is a longitudinal wing or projection 39 (or 40), and the one 40 on the right hand side of the window is apertured as at 41 to receive the end pivot of the shade roller. The wing 39 of the other or left hand carrier might of course receive the flattened projection 42 at the left hand end of a shade roller direct, but for purposes of adjustment, I prefer to interpose an extension socket 48. This socket comprises a square pin adapted to slide in a bearing 44 of the wing 40, and having at its end next the shade roller a recess 45 to receive the usual flattened tip thereon, as shown in Figs. 2 to 5. A set screw 46 clamps said flattened tip of the shade roller in said recess, and in order to normally held the socket 43 from sliding outward, a leaf spring 47 fastened on the inner side of the wing 40 engages a shoulder 48 on said socket pin to force it inward or toward the other side of the window.

In operation, to adjust the shade roller to desired position it is necessary only to grasp the handle 32 and turn the large gear 30, when the two conveyers 18, 18 will rotate simultaneously and both ends of the shade roller will be raised or lowered in unison. VJ hen the proper position of the roller has been reached, the bevel gear 29 is locked by means of a sliding catch 49 frictionally held to the bracket 14 by means of rivets 50, 50

which pass through a slot 5] in the bowed resilient body 52 of the catch. The lower end of the said body is provided with a tooth 53 adapted to enter between any two teeth of the gear 29 when the slide is pulled up by means of a curved linger piece 54 at the opposite end of its body 52, and thus lock said gear against turning. The shade itself may now be raised or lowered by the rotation of the spring roller, as is common when the shade is mounted in fixed bearings.

It will be noted that with the gears arranged as shown, the two conveyer rods are of the opposite hand, that is, one is a right hand screw and the other a left hand screw.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new is:

The combination with a window frame, of upper and lower brackets mounted at the opposite sides thereof, vertical conveyor rods rotatably mounted in said brackets, carrier sleeves one fitting around each conveyer rod, an extension socket mounted in one of said carrier sleeves, a spring between said extension socket and carrier sleeve, a shade roller mounted between said extension socket and the other carrier sleeve, and means for turning said conveyer rods in unison EDTVARD LAY.

In the presence of- RUssELL M. EVERETT, ETI'IEL B. REED. 

